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Ninety-year-old Joy Taylor has seen a lot in her 74 years in politics.

But what the NDP matriarch says she saw when Adam Giambrone won the nomination in Scarborough-Guildwood was too much for her to stomach. She not only quit the riding association executive but also her beloved party.

Taylor said she would be betraying her socialist roots by letting Giambrone, who was parachuted into the riding, and the party hierarchy get away with allegedly stacking the nomination meeting.

Taylor told the Star on Wednesday she believes the election process was rigged so that Giambrone, who finished third in the byelection a week ago, could take the nomination on July 7 away from Amarjeet Kaur Chhabra.

But first, Taylor said, she has to get all her ducks in a row before she makes her case to the party so that she can’t be written off “as some crazy old lady.”

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“I’ve got to do this because it has got to stop . . . we don’t do this in my party. We would be no better than a third world country because we cheat on elections. I want to put a stop to it,” she said.

“I owe it to Tommy Douglas and my father who taught me socialism,” said Taylor, referring to the legendary Douglas, who became the first leader of the New Democratic Party, which rose from the ashes of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.

At the centre of controversy is how Giambrone descended on the July 7 nomination meeting with 12 supporters whose names did not appear on the list of eligible NDP riding association members. Giambrone won by a vote of 18-14, marking his return to politics. In 2010, he dropped out of Toronto mayoral race after cheating on his then-girlfriend.

While Giambrone could not be reached by the Star, he told CFRB Newstalk 1010 Wednesday that the party considers the matter settled.

NDP MPP Michael Prue (Beaches-East York) called the controversy over Giambrone “an internal party matter,” but said the party secretary found that the nomination process was open.

“I am advised by the secretary of the party that everything was above board and she vouched for the authenticity of the members,” Prue told reporters Wednesday.

When Scarborough-Guildwood riding stalwarts challenged the unlisted new arrivals, NDP secretary Darlene Lawson vouched for one of them and waved off all objections.

“I knew right away something was wrong and the Ontario NDP okayed all of it,” said Taylor, adding she did not recognize any of the new faces at the meeting.

“We are no different than the other parties,” Taylor said, adding that allowing this kind of thing to go unchallenged “is going to be the end of party.”

Lawson declined to answer questions from the Star but released a statement in which she said all voters in question were eligible.

“In response to a complaint by Ms. Chhabra, lawyers for Ms. Chhabra and the Party met and the Party made available the information that had been requested by Ms. Chhabra. This information demonstrated that all members who did so were eligible to vote at the nomination meeting,” she said, referring to the fact Chhabra had threatened to sue the party.

To be eligible to vote at the nomination meeting, the rule of thumb is that members must take out a membership at least 30 days in advance.

The riding executive, led by its president Viresh Raghubeer, has asked Lawson to look into the matter and verify the membership of those who suddenly showed up, apparently to support Giambrone.

Raghubeer said the memo was sent to party headquarters three or four weeks ago and he has yet to hear back.

Raghubeer said all but one of the eight-person riding executive refused to volunteer in the byelection campaign after the nomination process was big-footed by Giambrone and the central party.

“Our duty as a riding executive is to ensure any candidate that is competing that things are transparent . . . and the process was fair. And that’s our main concern,” Raghubeer told the Star.

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